Posted on 06/02/2003 5:01:08 PM PDT by Cathryn Crawford
Feminism, Wimpy Men, and the State
by Brad Edmonds
Feminist men aren’t necessarily wimps. Often, it’s just the opposite – they’re aggressive and power hungry. They’re generally evil, though some are merely ignorant and misled. And their triumph over the last 40 years in no way suggests that non-feminist men are wimps for not having defeated them. Such misconceptions about the feminist movement have survived over the last several decades, and they should be set aright.
By "feminism," I mean something fairly narrow. The dictionary defines it as belief in the equality of men and women, and as the political movement associated with implementing this belief in society. Of course, the "equality" of any two people requires further explanation – we have to distinguish between equality of opportunity, equality of economic outcomes, and equality of talent. It would be absurd to claim men and women are of equal capabilities. Men can’t have children, women can’t get anybody pregnant, and the two sexes are naturally endowed with different balances of strongly psychoactive hormones. Their bodies and personalities are built for different things. If feminists intend that everyone enjoy equal economic outcomes, history teaches that this is impossible. Why totalitarian socialism won’t ever work is a topic for another time.
If feminists meant that men and women should have equal rights, I agree wholeheartedly. There are women out there who are big and strong enough to get into VMI and the local fire station while meeting the same physical standards the men must meet. Female executives are just fine – as long as they win their jobs competitively, and show up for work as much as the men do (rather than taking off 9–12 weeks per year on maternity leave). And certainly, no libertarian would disagree that women should be allowed to own property – chattel, real, and their own persons – just as men. Everyone should have full rights to his body and property, and no rights to expropriate the bodies or property of others, as our government does now.
My use of "feminism" being understood, here are the popular misconceptions: First, that feminist men are wimps. To the contrary, from the outset feminism has been a two-way street. Women wanted something, and they went to Congress, the courts, and the media to get it. They didn’t really want equal rights, of course; they’d had that since they got the right to vote. What they wanted were guarantees that they could compete for jobs they aren’t as good at as men, and as job applicants be given special status and relaxed standards rather than submit to open competition. Power hungry congressmen of the 1960s helped feminists get their way, using their government power in exchange for guaranteed women’s votes to keep them in jobs where they could pass pay raises for themselves, never be held accountable for the quality of their work, and win high-paying private-sector jobs lobbying their own successors later on.
Those men sold out a potentially peaceful, prosperous, moral, superior culture for personal gain. Make no mistake, feminism is a big part of our societal degradation. Others have written already that feminism – particularly government-sponsored abortion and the end of shame over sexual promiscuity – has been an outright fantasy gift to irresponsible, immoral men. The result of feminism’s lifting of moral proscriptions aimed at women has not been greater freedom and dignity for women, but something terrible for them: Millions of single mothers in poverty; women all over the country trying to live the dream of a high-powered career while having children, only to find that the children aren’t so well-adjusted when they grow up without a mommy as the primary care provider; millions of women experiencing intense guilt and shame after having abortions; and millions of men who have little respect for women and who take no responsibility for the support or rearing of the children they sire.
The men in Congress and the judges who helped bring it about weren’t necessarily wimps. They were foolish, scheming, selfish, and short-sighted, yes; but I’m sure there were more opportunists than pushovers among them.
Another misconception about the rise of feminism is that the men with traditional values – men who have the common sense to recognize that men and women are different; who are willing to work the hours, take the responsibility, and give up "playing the field" and buying lots of toys for themselves to support a family – that these men are somehow wimps for not reversing the tide of feminism. Men can’t stop earthquakes or tornados, either. The most well-armed and well-funded government in the history of the planet pushed feminism into the lawbooks, and government judges have supported it. Additionally, the movement was often insidious – an innocuous little new law here, another one there, and you’ve been snuck up on. Finally, many moral men were on the front lines, and remain there, actively trying to prevent what they see as our moral downfall. Such groups as Promise Keepers face continuing ridicule and suspicion from the mass media, as do groups of teenagers who announce they intend to remain chaste until marriage. Those who protest at government-sponsored abortion clinics are now the only group whose political speech is officially restricted by government.
Instead of banding together by the millions and planning an insurrection, strong men have been supporting families, communities, churches, private schools, and home schools. They’ve been spending their lives doing the good they can do, and many (especially in the South) have quietly ignored the moral and philosophical wrecks that are Congress, our institutions of higher learning, and the popular press. Some men choose not to speak out much because they have accepted the grave responsibility of supporting a family, and for their families’ sakes they put job security ahead of ego. They take what time they do have to teach their children to live by the moral values Washington is eroding.
There are wimps everywhere. A man can be a wimp with or without strong convictions, a family, traditional views, or a habit of political activism. It needs to be got straight in the popular media that failing to publicly oppose the government is insufficient to determine whether somebody’s a wimp; that supporting feminism is insufficient to establish whether somebody’s a wimp; and that other things being equal, a man taking responsibility for a family is much less likely to be a wimp than is a man who accepts responsibility for nothing, such as Bill Clinton. How a man lives, and not whether there are other men and women making a shambles of the society around him, is what will tell you whether he’s a wimp.
vs.
Power hungry congressmen of the 1960s helped feminists get their way, using their government power in exchange for guaranteed women’s votes to keep them in jobs where they could pass pay raises for themselves, never be held accountable for the quality of their work, and win high-paying private-sector jobs lobbying their own successors later on.
and
...millions of men who have little respect for women and who take no responsibility for the support or rearing of the children they sire.
So how are men not responsible for the problems blamed on feminism?
What they wanted were guarantees that they could compete for jobs they aren’t as good at as men, and as job applicants be given special status and relaxed standards rather than submit to open competition.
Whether feminists want that or not is beside the point, because men are willing to give that for completely unrelated reasons.
Look men, I don't enjoy male bashing any more than the next guy, but some where along the line men are going to have to face up to the harm they cause themselves and each other and change their ways, or they will all end up going to the unemployment lines or bankrupt, uselessly blaming feminism for the discrimination they inflict on each other. It's as simple as that.
Men and women are different and I don't spend a moment worrying about legislators changing that one iota, Cathryn. I think I've posted on that point ad nauseum.
I do think that a lot of the changes that we've seen in this area in the last few decades have flowed more or less inevitably from the development of more effective contraception. And there's been a lot of legal experimentation that has taken place during that period of time, but none of it is irreversible.
So do I, I think. The problem with "equal rights" is that it only recognizes the individual, and her "right" to whatever professions she's qualified for.
So what about our woman who's strong enough to qualify, on equal terms, for army combat units? It's been demonstrated that the presence of a woman among fighting men, no matter how strong she is, is detrimental to the effectiveness of the unit. Shouldn't the woman recognize the larger goal, national security, and exercise her "equal right" in some other way?
Not to get off topic......but this is a telling statement in regards to our current state of affairs, nationwide.
See, but that assumes that the only really important thing either men or women do is paid labor. That's nonsense, and more to the point, ultimately destructive of a society - talk to some of our immigration-fixated FReepers.
"Equal rights" to be a wage-slave? And leave my kids with an illegal-immigrant sub-minimum-wage-slave? No thanks! I want "unequal rights" to be a mother, because otherwise our society is toast! You definitely want ME, and not the alternatives, raising the next generation of voters!
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